Spider Orchid
by Sheo Darren
Summary: What if Elsa de Sica had a different handler? And what if Rolito Miranda had joined up with Section Two instead of Amalgam? Another Take AU fic. Chapter 5.
1. Chapter 1

She woke up to a white ceiling above and equally bland walls around, her weight supported by deliciously fluffy eider down pillows and equally comfortable bedding, and feeling rather….

New.

The first thing that came to her mind was a rhetorical question: _Where am I?_

Her next self-query was far more troublesome.

_Who am I?_

She was not alone. A man lounged within an armchair beside her bed. He watched her with keen interest, and smiled while at it. His attention embarrassed her made her wonder some more.

_Who is this man? Why is he here? Why is he interested in me?_

She studied him for clues and perhaps answers, beginning with a face both young and old. His golden brown forehead sported wrinkling, his curly coal black hair was heavily shot through by gray streaks, and his tired eyes were full of painfully-earned wisdom. Yet those same eyes sparkled with a youthful enthusiasm readily echoed by the inverted arc of his faint smile and the ease of movement with which he shifted in his seat.

His skin tone pronounced him a foreigner. Asian, she guessed, though she had no idea as to what specific nationality he belonged too. He was taller than her, but not by much, or at least not as tall as a European man of his apparent age would be. In fact he couldn't be over five and a half feet, and maybe seventy kilos tops. His leanness and easy demeanor reminded her of a cat comfortably curled up on top of a still-warm television set.

"Buon giorno," he greeted her. His Italian was unaccented and carefully enunciated. His smile remained.

"Buon giorno." She was a bit slow this morning, being sleepy still, and blinked to clear her eyes and head. She gazed at her watcher, the better to fix his face into her memory, for she felt that he would be most important in her life. "Who are you?" she asked.

"I'm Rolito Miranda."

_Rolito Miranda. So that is his name._

"I will be your Sensei," he added.

"Se-Sense?" She stumbled upon the last, unfamiliar word. Was it English? Her command of that language was not as good as Italian, French, German and Spanish, the last her native tongue.

"Sensei," Rolito gently corrected hr pronunciation. "It is a Japanese word that translates to 'insegnante'."

Insegnante. _Teacher._ She murmured the word in the way he did. The pleased man nodded.

"That's right," he said. "I'm your teacher, among other things. I'll take care of you from now on."

"You will?" She struggled with the thought and realized something mysterious. "You are my father?"

Both Rolito and the girl herself were surprised by her question. Then her self-proclaimed Sensei grinned, an act that shaved years from his face. "More like an adoptive fratello."

_Fratello. Big brother. Adoptive?_ "We… are not related?"

"No, and more's the shame. I'd love to have been your big brother or father. I've always wanted a little sister…"

Rolito trailed off. A more serious bout of uneasiness marked his face. His eyes grew distant, and he murmured something beneath his breath in a reverently hushed tone.

To her surprise, she could hear what he was saying, and realized her hearing was very sharp.

"Jessica…"

_Jessica? Who is she? Why does Rolito seem so sad when he thinks of her?_

_Why do I feel like I am sad as well?_

"I'm sorry, Rolito," she apologized without thinking.

He blinked, stared at her and then shook off his mental malaise. "Don't be. It wasn't your fault. It was no one's fault. The past is over. We're still alive."

"Yes," she immediately agreed, "We are alive."

_You and me…_

_Me._

"Rolito?"

"Yes?"

"Who am I?"

Again he grimaced. "I've forgotten that. Sorry about that."

"I cannot remember my name." The girl peered at her Sensei. "Do I have a name?"

"Yes. Your name is Elsa. Elsa de Sica."

"Elsa de Sica..."

**  
**_I am Elsa de Sica._

_He is Rolito Miranda._

_We are Fratello._

_We are alive._

**  
**Elsa smiled at Rolito.

**  
**"Thank you, Rolito."

"You're welcome. Elsa."

**  
****Spider Orchid**

**  
**A Gunslinger Girl "Another Take" Fan Fiction

**  
**Sheo Darren does not own Gunslinger Girl. Rolito Miranda is his original creation.

This fic takes place in a different universe from either the manga or the one I've earlier manufactured for "Life Goes On". Please be advised of continuity divergences.


	2. Chapter 2

They talked for hours. Rolito had brought food and drinks for them both. Along the way they learned much about each other and their situation.

"I'm a cyborg?"

"A mechanical body, to be precise. They've replaced your skin with carbon fiber material and your original muscles with synthesized ones. You're much stronger and faster now than you used to be. Also heavier," Rolito added with a sneaky smile.

Elsa blushed. Her Sensei laughed. "What I mean is that your implants weigh somewhat more than the organs they replaced," he explained. "That's why you're heavier. Don't worry, you haven't gotten fat. You're still sexy. Probably more than you were in the beginning."

"Please don't tease me like that!"

"Sorry, Elsa-chan, I couldn't help it." He ruffled her hair. Elsa flinched and blushed even more.

She found that Rolito was rather irreverent at times. The trait made him seem younger. He certainly looked old enough to be her father, with his graying hair and wise eyes. Yet his bouts of youthful humor and obvious fondness for her endeared him to her.

Her own father… She remembered nothing. Not his face nor voice or anything. Nor her mother or family.

Elsa knew, instinctively, that all people had family, parents. Her Sensei said he wasn't her father or brother. So who were they? And where were they?

"Rolito-sensei? What happened to my father? To my family?"

Her Sensei closed his eyes and kept quiet for the longest time. His sadness was evident. "They're gone. I can't tell you what happened because I wasn't around then."

"I see…"

"I'm sorry, Elsa. I really am."

"Don't be." She smiled at him. "I have you."

He was only a little slower in smiling back, and also sadder. "Yeah. You have me."

Finding her Sensei melancholic once more, she decided to change topics. "When can I get out of this room?"

"Tomorrow. You'll have to exercise so that you can get used to your new body. I'd suggest track and gymnastics. Once you're limber enough, we can leave the base and go shopping for your stuff."

"That sounds great to me, Rolito-sensei."

At first she kept calling him by his first name. A Westerner, Elsa was used to addressing people that way, and meant nothing impolite by it. In contrast, Rolito, an Asian ("A Filipino," he had further qualified) used to affixing polite prefixes and suffixes to people's names when talking to them, found it discomfiting to be on first-name terms with a girl about a third of his age.

So they compromised. Elsa appended "-sensei" to Rolito's name. Rolito for his part accepted Elsa's occasional slips.

"Of course it would sound better to you," Rolito informed her. "You're not the one paying." He grinned. "So what would you like to buy?"

Elsa made a show of thinking it over. "Dresses. Shoes. Hats. Pajamas. A whole wardrobe." She looked at her Sensei. "Can we afford all of those?"

"We can. I've got a lot of money saved up. Plus, I get paid very well for this job."

"Job?"

"You're my job, Elsa. It's my job to take care of you. And I would be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to it."

Elsa gracefully hid her blush behind a pillow. While giving her room to recover, Rolito happened to glance at his watch. His face scrounged up. "Damn. It's already nine?" He stood up.

"Sensei?"

"I have to go home now, Elsa."

"Already?" She looked disappointed. "It isn't **that** late…"

"Yeah, but my apartment is a ways from here. I haven't found one near here yet, and this place's administrators are strict about curfews and visitors."

"You'll come back, right?"

"Of course. First thing in the morning. Early to bed, early to rise. That's me."

He patted her on her head. She smiled back.

"Goodbye, Sensei," she bid him.

"Bye, Elsa. Good night."

The door closed behind Rolito.

**  
**Elsa lay very still upon her bed.

**  
**Silence.

Emptiness.

Loneliness.

Incompleteness.

Disintegration.

Death.

**  
**_I miss you already…_

**  
**The door opened.

Rolito bore a chair and a couple of pillows. He grinned at the startled Elsa.

"Rolito?"

"On second thought, I think I can spend the night here."

Elsa was too overjoyed to say _thank you_ aloud. She didn't need to.

**  
****Spider Orchid**

**  
**A Gunslinger Girl "Another Take" Fan Fiction

**  
**Sheo Darren does not own Gunslinger Girl. Rolito Miranda is his original creation.


	3. Chapter 3

"Will you be all right, Rolito?" Elsa asked as her Sensei padded the chairs that would serve as his makeshift bed.

"I've slept in chairs before. Least this time it's not a job that's keeping me around."

"Won't you get in trouble for this? You told me the administrators were very strict…"

"Oh, yes, they are. Jean, especially, bless his icy little heart– if he has one. But I don't plan to tell them I'm staying over. What they don't know can't worry them."

"You're going to break the rules?"

"Rules are made to be broken. Just make sure you break them for a real good reason and that no one catches you."

"…isn't that rather dishonest, Sensei?"

"True, but did I ever say I was a completely honest man? And I don't see you telling them, either, now, do I?"

"No, Sensei. Aren't you driving back to your apartment already?"

"That's my girl, Elsa."

They grinned at each other.

All was right with her world.

**  
**Rolito settled into his makeshift bed. "This isn't too bad. Some chairs I've used feel like Torquemada designed them."

"Torquemada?" The name played upon her tongue like melted butter. _Spanish, I think?_ Elsa wondered.

"Tomas de Torquemada. Spanish Dominican. Head of the Spanish Inquisition during the reign of Isabella I and Ferdinand V during the first decades of the 15th century. Noted for his liberal application of various excruciating tortures to elicit confessions from accused heretics and heathens." Rolito turned grim. "While he was Supreme Inquisitor, he had more than two thousand people put to death, usually by burning them alive at the stake in public executions."

"That's terrible!" the horrified Elsa exclaimed. "He's a terrible man!"

"Terrible?" Her Sensei shook his head sadly. "Torquemada thought what he was doing was the correct thing. He was a zealot who believed that nonbelievers and insincere converts could destroy the Catholic Church.

"Look at it through his eyes. 15th century Castile– Spain didn't exist yet back then– was a small, poor country surrounded by religious enemies. Muslim Almohads to the south," he gestured downwards with those calloused hands, then upwards: "French apostates to the north. A bleak proposition.

"Plus, medieval Europe was a ghastly place and time, and double for medieval Castile. Serfdom, wars, disease, miserable weather… In those days, all a man could call his own was his soul, his ticket to a better place called Heaven. Torquemada wanted to make sure the average good Spaniard kept that well-deserved ticket. Thus, the few were sacrificed for the many.

"Even stranger, according to the history books, Torquemada himself was a very pious and quiet man. No monster there, at least not outright." Rolito smiled faintly. "Most Spaniards I know are great folks. You're Spanish, Elsa." That surprised her, but not as much as his next statement. "I've got some Spanish blood, too, from both sides of my family."

"Really, Sensei?"

"Yeah. My maternal great-grandfather had the bluest of eyes." His smile brightened. "Kind of like your own eyes. So did my maternal grandmother, who told me all about him. Unfortunately, the genes got diluted by my Mom's generation, so all I got from Great Grandpa was this nose." He pointed at the ridge of his nose. "It's what we Filipinos call _matangos_."

"I think it's cute," Elsa told him.

"Thanks," Rolito jokingly returned. "I think."

They chuckled together. "So Torquemada wasn't bad?" Elsa asked.

"Oh, he was bad enough in his own way. What he did was excessive. Burning people on the stake does not make you a saint, however guilty they may be.

"But you want bad? We have people who cheat on their spouses and rape their children. People who cheat and steal from others out of greed and hate. People who sell poisons and guns and organs and souls and other people. People who kill other people. People who start wars. People who **chose** to do these things. People who **enjoy** all these sick stuff–people who **know** it, and who **admit** they enjoy it. And this has happened for almost the entire existence of humans as we know them.

"Elsa. Humans are terrible creatures. We are capable of performing horrors upon each other and on ourselves. We were given the power to decide for ourselves what we want to be and do. We got drunk on that power. We became addicted to it. We abused it. We call others 'animals' for doing evil unto us, but animals would never do the things we do. Not, it's not about being an 'animal'," Rolito darkly observed. "It's being 'human'."

"But we're not like that!" Elsa protested. "Not me! Not you, Rolito!"

Her Sensei smiled wanly. "Elsa… I'm not the nicest bloke out there. I've done some pretty bad things in my own time. I've rationalized some of them by telling myself that they were necessary, that otherwise I would have done something worse and that more people would suffer. Maybe they were. But in the end, when I think about it, I know and admit that what I did was wrong. A white lie is still a lie. A small evil is still evil, however favorably it compares to a big evil. Killing one man to save a thousand is still murder."

"But…"

"But I try to be a good man," Rolito finished. "And that's the nub of it all. You try your best. You don't always win. You don't always get to do the right thing. But you try anyway."

"I'll try, Sensei."

"We all do. That makes us good. You're a good girl, Elsa. Remember that."

She could listen all night to him. And she did. His words held her rapt. He held her within the palm of his hand.

**  
**_Don't leave me. You're the only one I have left to me. I don't want to lose you. I can't live without you._

_I love you._

**  
****Spider Orchid**

**  
**A Gunslinger Girl "Another Take" Fan Fiction

**  
**Sheo Darren does not own Gunslinger Girl. Rolito Miranda is his original creation.


	4. Chapter 4

Rolito moved a bit stiffly from having spent the night crunched up inside a chair, but not much worse than Elsa would have expected.

"Are you all right, Rolito?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just give me a minute to work the kinks out of my joints…" He stretched his arms and legs. "Crap, I'm getting old…"

"How old are you?"

"Thirty-two. And don't tell the ladies that."

"Why would I?"

"Good girl. Let's walk around a bit, shall we? Do you think you can keep up with me?"

"Yes."

They were an unlikely pair. Not quite diametric opposites, but strikingly different, individual traits magnified by the other's contrast.

The man was not much taller than his companion. He was brown-skinned; hers was a healthy kind of fair. His hair was black and curly; she wore her golden mane long and unbound.

Rolito wore a fresh set of his clothing from yesterday. Elsa wondered if he had a closet packed with full sets of black sweaters and pants, like a cartoon character. Also: _He likes the color black…_

Her gym clothes felt and smelled new because they **were** new. Rolito explained that he had bought her a whole wardrobe a week ago. "Don't worry. Soon as I can talk Jean into giving us a pass, we're going shopping together."

"He doesn't like us leaving this place?"

"Let's just say it will look very bad on his record if a multimillion euro cyborg disappears on his watch…"

"You'd get into trouble, too, won't you, Rolito-sensei?"

"Yeah, I would."

"Then I will stay here and wait for permission," Elsa said.

She didn't understand why her affirmation startled Rolito, or why his face suddenly broke into a fond smile. She did know that seeing his approval made her feel very happy.

_I promise I won't make trouble for you, Rolito…_

"Thanks, Elsa. I guess we **can** postpone the shopping trip. I did buy a lot of clothes for you earlier. Do you like them?"

"Yes." Her first glance of her closet's contents dizzied her with delight. She had thrown the amused Rolito out of the room in order to try some of them on. "They are very cute," she allowed.

"Glad you like them."

"You have good taste in girls' clothing, Rolito-sensei."

"I do? Yeah, I guess taking care of a little sister does help in that department."

"You have a sister?"

"Yes."

The sad tinge in his voice overcame her curiosity. "I'm sorry," Elsa immediately said, thinking, _his sister is dead_.

"Don't be. You didn't do anything wrong."

That her Sensei had once been in a relationship with another girl made her a bit… jealous. That he had been saddened by its end made her sad as well.

Elsa briefly struggled to control her conflicting emotions. She finally asked, "How did you know my size?"

"I read up on your medical files. Priscilla did me the favor of taking your measurements."

She thought it over. "So," she began, blushing honestly, "So you didn't peek at my body?"

Rolito stumbled and choked. "Elsa!" he scolded. "What kind of man do you think I am?" Then he saw her smile and realized he had been had. "Oh, you…"

"I know you wouldn't do that," she told him sweetly.

"Thanks for the confidence in my taste in women. Or are you just getting revenge on me for teasing you about your weight?"

"What do you think, Sensei?"

He laughed and patted her head. "That's my girl."

**  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**

**  
**Despite earlier complaints about 'kinks in his joints', Rolito moved with an easy, catlike grace. His pace was deceptively methodical. In reality, he walked swiftly and didn't seem to notice it. It was a chore for Elsa to keep up.

_Her_ body felt funny. She knew she was superhumanly strong and fast now. Rolito had told her all about her new, improved body last night. But Elsa found she could not exactly make her feet and hands do exactly what she wanted them to.

"You okay, Elsa?"

"I'm fine, Rolito-sensei…"

The studious concentration he subjected her with made her blush. Elsa held herself rigid in a futile but well-meant attempt to persuade him otherwise.

"You're having trouble with your cybernetics, aren't you?" Rolito finally asked.

"Yes," she admitted. "I don't think I can walk that well yet…"

"Are you tired? Do you want to go back to your room?"

"No, Sensei. I can manage."

"Would you like to rest a moment?"

"No, not yet. I can take this."

"…All right. No pain, no gain, I guess. But we'll shelve the calisthenics for tomorrow or maybe two days ahead. Let's just have you walk around so you can get used to your legs. Tell me if you have any problems," Rolito insisted. "We'll take a break. Just don't make me carry you, okay?" He grinned. "I'm a hit man, not an Olympic weight lifter."

"Yes, Rolito-sensei."

Their pace having slowed, they had more time to enjoy and talk about their surroundings. "This place was formerly a monastery," Rolito explained. He gestured to surviving architecture from said era. "The rebels seized this place from the Church during the formation of the modern Italian nation. The government refurbished it and turned it over to Section Two. To be honest," he chuckled, "I still get lost here because it's so big and because I'm new here."

"You're new here?"

"Yeah. I've been living in Italy for about two years now. Before this, I'd spent most of my life in Asia. The Philippines and Japan, mostly, though I got around the rest of the region well enough. I joined Section Two only a couple of months ago."

"You came from the Philippines, right?"

"Yeah. I lived Japan for five years. I visit every now and then. Japan, I mean. I don't plan on going back to the Philippines…"

Again his sadness silenced him. Again she wondered.

_He had a little sister. He lost her? She was in the Philippines?_

_He __**loved**__ her?_

_Does he love __**me**__ like her?_

The sound of footsteps caused the distracted Elsa to glance over her shoulder.

Another mismatched pair approached. The stern-looking man in the gray suit made Rolito look almost like a teenager, if not quite a child, being not only head and shoulders taller, but also much **wider**.

His twin-pigtailed companion was only a bit taller than Elsa herself– and, come to think of it, not that much shorter than **Rolito**, either. (_Sensei is so short…_) This girl did look snappier than her– _Fratello? Was that what Sensei said?_– the man in the suit.

Elsa wasn't exactly plain, even in her gym clothes, but this girl's russet brown skin gave her an exotic appeal that worked wonders on the otherwise drab gray suit. An effect magnified by her wheat blond hair and baby blue eyes.

The thought that this girl was prettier than her didn't bother her that much– until she caught Rolito eyeing the girl.

_No…_

"Guten morgen, Rolito," the man greeted Rolito in German.

"Guten morgen to you, too, Hilshire."

_Hilshire,_ Elsa thought. _His name sounds British– but he's German?_

"And to you, too… Triela, right?" Rolito asked the pony-tailed girl.

Her Sensei's offered smile fell flat on its face when Triela refused to even give him the time of the day. That did not stop him from chuckling, though.

"Spunky lass, ain't she?" Rolito asked Hilshire.

"You have **no** idea…"

Elsa felt overlooked and didn't like the feeling. She eyed the pair, noticed Triela doing the same to her and Rolito. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled. She stiffened in challenge. So did Triela.

"Now, now, Elsa," Rolito scolded. "Be nice."

Her Sensei's body language had abruptly changed. While his tone remained bantering and genuinely diplomatic, she detected a trace of hesitation and concern in his words. His stance radiated tension, like a spring slowly coiling, as if he was preparing to suddenly move in secret.

_Is he threatened by this girl?_

Hilshire was similarly rebuking Triela. "Triela, do what I say," he was saying.

"Then why don't you up my conditioning?"

The tenseness Elsa sensed in Rolito drained almost as quickly as the blood in Hilshire's face– only to return in full force, as Hilshire made to slap the impudent Triela.

"Oi! Hilshire! Chotto matte!"

The moment Rolito (_he moves __**so**__ fast,_ Elsa realized) grabbed Hilshire's wrist, all hell broke loose.

Elsa had known instinctively and intellectually that Triela was also a cyborg, and that the girl was capable of amazing feats. But she bore some personal doubt as to if she herself really was a cyborg, despite her Sensei's assurances. Her body moved so awkwardly despite her best efforts.

_Sensei moves much faster than me._

She felt so weak, useless, undependable…

_Sensei…_

All her doubts vanished in one overwhelming burst of fear for her Sensei, as Triela– _so fast! Faster than even Sensei!_– pulled out a black shape from her coat–_ a gun_, Elsa recognized– and began to aim at Rolito's head.

_**Rolito!**_

She moved. Like her body weighed nothing. Like her legs were steel springs long coiled and just now unleashed. Her fear was a liquid propellant that burned fierce and fast through her and out her. It transformed her into a missile of reinforced bone and carbon fiber skin and angry girl, a missile her eyes and brain aimed at the bitch who was trying to murder her Sensei.

_**No!**_

BOOM

The crunching impact tumbled her and Triela into the soft soil. Triela's gun flew off somewhere. Elsa clung tight to her opponent, dug her fingers into resistant skin so like and yet unlike hers, refused to let go, would not allow Triela to get at her Sensei.

The fist to her jaw snapped her head aside. Her tongue tasted something hot and bitter– _blood; __**my**__ blood_–; she spat it out just as another punch arrived. _**Ah!**_

Elsa didn't quite know what had gotten into her head save that she had to hit back. She couldn't do it with her hands; she needed the grapple. That left her with–

Elsa slammed her forehead into Triela's nose.

_Ow,_ she thought through the slight daze occupying her brain. But the warm wetness on her forehead and the groan it extracted from her enemy made Elsa feel justly rewarded. _Take this, you puta negr-_

"**PUTANG-INA!"**

The alien snarl filled her head, her world. Startled, Elsa hesitated. Iron claws bit into her shoulders. She saw surprise flash across Triela's bloodied face. _Am I __**that**__ horrible?_

And then she found herself hauled backwards, off and away from her enemy.

"**ELSA!"**

Rolito's dark eyes were eldritch black suns against the backdrop of his deathly white face. Looking into those darkling orbs instantly emptied the fight out of Elsa's body. Bewilderment and a healthy dose of… fear replaced adrenaline-empowered aggression. She stuttered.

"S-Sensei?"

"**Stand down!"**

The order was bellowed in English. Her dazed brain did not immediately translate. No need to. Elsa instantly went as limp as a rag doll, felt just as unwanted.

_Sensei is __**angry**__. He is angry at __**me**__…_

"Yes… yes, Sensei…"

Unable to bear the fury directed at her and the shame that now filled her breast, Elsa averted her eyes from Rolito's condemnation. Blood, Triela's blood, trickled down her forehead, tickled the bridge of her nose, traced a path to her harshly silenced lips.

She saw Hilshire and Triela staring at them– more so, at her raging Sensei–, and felt even more ashamed. _They saw…_

Rolito released her. Breathe hissed out of his gritted teeth like poisoned steam.

"We're going back to your room."

Elsa bowed her head. "Yes, Sensei."

_I'm sorry…_

**  
****Spider Orchid**

**  
**A Gunslinger Girl "Another Take" Fan Fiction

**  
**Sheo Darren does not own Gunslinger Girl. Rolito Miranda is his original creation.


	5. Chapter 5

**Spider Orchid**

.

**Disclaimer:** Sheo Darren does not own Gunslinger Girl. Rolito Miranda is his original creation.

.

**Chapter 5**

_Promise_

_.  
_

Elsa listlessly shambled after her handler. Her vision, so sharp, now seemed distorted, as if she was a goldfish peering at the vast, waterless expanse just outside the curvature of its bowl.

_I shamed Sensei. I humiliated him in front of other people._

She blamed that other girl, Triela, for being so bloody-minded. She also heaped responsibility on Triela's handler for not, well, handling his ward.

But most of all she blamed herself.

_I don't deserve him. He doesn't deserve the likes of me._

"Elsa?"

Incapable of ignoring him, she faced his–

"Are you okay?"

–concern?

_What?_

"You look like you got cut on the lip," Rolito murmured. "Let me look at your mouth."

She raised her chin. Immediately she wished she hadn't. Seeing her handler wincing made her wince sympathetically.

"Damn… Triela decks helluva hard. I really pity Hilshire. He's got a real virago on his hands."

Again Elsa silently cursed Triela for being the object of what sounded like slight praise thinly disguised as damnation. Rolito was her handler! How dare that- that virago (to quote her Sensei) try to steal him from her? Rolito was Elsa's and Elsa's alone. All half-Dutch, half-Algerians should get knifed by a sociopathic assassin. Or psy-warred by their bespectacled roommate over a photograph.

"Does it hurt?"

Now that she had his full attention once more, she fidgeted. "No…"

"It looks like it's going to swell."

Elsa caught her breath. _Sensei isn't mad at me,_ she realized._ He's mad at my __**injury**_.

"Since the ounce of prevention failed, it's time for the pound of cure." Rolito took her hand. She found comfort in those strong, calloused fingers clasping hers. "Come on, Elsa. Let's have Doc Bianchi fix you up."

"I'm fine, Sensei!"

Again she held her breath. Her denial startled her as much as it did her handler. "I'm fine," Elsa lamely repeated. "This is nothing…"

"You're not fine. You're a cyborg. You don't heal the same way as people do. I'm not an expert, but you might need some surgery on that."

By now she knew his frown to be that of worry and not anger. But she persisted. "If we go to the doctor, he'll ask how I got injured." Seeing she'd gotten to Rolito, Elsa continued to plead. "If he heard that I fought with another cyborg, you would get into trouble because of me."

"What, you want him to think that **I** hit you?" was his incredulous retort.

"No! You'd never do that, Sensei! It's just…"

"Elsa." Rolito's tone brooked no dissent. "We're going to Doctor Bianchi. And if he asks what happened, we will tell him the truth. And if that means I get into trouble," and the iron severity in his brow hardened into steel. "I've been in trouble before. I can survive this." But then his gaze softened, warmed, as he regarded her fondly. "But what I cannot accept is that you suffer. You come first before anything or anyone else. Do you understand?"

Even as she meekly submitted to his request, Elsa felt pride refilling her chest.

_He worries for me. I am __**important**__ to him._

"Also, Elsa…"

"Yes, Sensei?"

"Next time," and the tips of Rolito's mouth slightly curled upwards. "Dodge or block. And don't head-butt unless you have no other choice. It's not tactically sound. You run the risk of concussing yourself along with the enemy."

"I will, Sensei!"

_I won't let you down, Rolito. I'll never let you down again. I swear._

_Before that happens, I'll kill myself first._

.

"You!"

If looks could kill, both Elsa and Triela would have been goners the moment they spotted each other.

Elsa was more than willing to make up for her glare's lack of lethality by charging Triela for Round Two. But Rolito's fingers closed tight upon her hands just as she was about to bolt forward.

"Hi, Triela. Hello, Hilshire." He smiled at them. "I'm glad we found you. We were going to look for you after this-"

_To finish this fight?_ Elsa eagerly hoped. Maybe Rolito did spoil for vengeance as much as her! She was sure her sensei would make mincemeat out of that useless Hilshire. Then she would show him what she could do to Triela. _I'm going_-

"-to apologize to you," Rolito finished.

_Eh?_

And to Elsa's eternal horror, her Sensei bowed deeply to Hilshire and Triela.

_This was not happening…_

"Miss Triela, I deeply apologize for rashly grabbing Hilshire. I thought I was helping you out. But I had forgotten that he is important to you. Hilshire would never really hit you because he is a good man."

His obsequious display appalled Elsa to no end. _Why was Sensei apologizing? He did nothing wrong; that Triela started it!_ She gulped. _Is he going to make me bow, too? Madre de Dios! Please, God in Heaven, anything but that!_

And then she spotted the dark dash of color cast across Triela's cheeks. If anything, Hilshire looked even more ill at ease.

_What?_

"You don't have to bow," Triela mumbled. "You're an adult. Act like one."

"Triela…"

Hilshire's scolding worked this time. "I know, Hilshire, thank you very much." Triela sighed. "I accept your apology, Mister Miranda. Please get up."

But the man remained bent. "Thank you, Miss Triela. I promise that I will think before I act the next time around. Also please do not hold a grudge against Elsa. She was only protecting me from the consequences of my rash action."

"I'm not angry at her, Mr. Miranda. I understand why she did it. I did just the same. So please stop bowing…"

"She is a good girl," Rolito insisted.

"She is," Triela agreed.

"She is just shy. I'm the only one she's seen and known her."

Elsa was now trying hard not to smirk.

"That is why I would like to ask you to become her friend," Rolito continued.

Not even that dampened her cheer. Not even Triela hastily agreeing to do so ruined her mood.

"Now, Elsa, why don't you and Triela hug?"

That, however, killed the moment deader than dodos.

"S-Sensei!"

"But unless you two hug, I can't be sure that you've forgiven each other." And Rolito said it so glibly, too.

"Are you making fun of us?" Triela demanded.

"He is not!" Elsa shouted her down, automatically defending Rolito despite her own distress.

"Elsa," he reminded her.

"Triela," Hilshire muttered to his own ward.

"Yes, Sensei," Elsa mumbled.

"Yes, Hilshire," Triela likewise muttered under her breath.

And so the Spanish girl and her rival blonde put their arms around each other most gingerly, as if afraid of contracting cooties or the like.

"Don't get any ideas," Elsa grumped. "I'm only doing this because Sensei asked me to."

"He's making fun of you," Triela pointed out sourly.

"He is not."

"He is, too."

Elsa's retort was to tighten her embrace into a bear hug. And Triela, despite knowing better, pettily retaliated with one of her own. They were soon grimacing as they stepped on each other's feet as well.

"Aren't they cute?" the apparently oblivious Rolito gushed to Hilshire.

The two girls' glares heterodyned together into a stare that could have gone through a mountain. It certainly penetrated into the thick skull of their target.

"Fifth Amendment," Hilshire passed.

"You have no romance in your heart, Hilshire," Rolito chuckled.

Elsa and Triela shuddered together. "I hate to say this," Elsa groaned, "But you're right. Sensei is teasing us."

"I wish I wasn't," Triela sighed.

.

Elsa's cut required little more than a bandage. Triela's broken nose would need some repair, though.

Rolito made Elsa apologize again. She did so without protest. _A cut lip for a broken nose? It was worth it._ She did not like Triela one bit. She declared as much once out of earshot of her pet peeve.

"I can't stand her, Sensei! She disrespects her handler; she acts like she knows everything…"

"You're just jealous because she got more punches in than you when you fought," Rolito chuckled.

"No, I'm not!" she protested.

"Be it as it may, Elsa, you need to learn to get along with Triela. You'll be working with her in the future."

"But I don't want to work with her." That came out almost as a whine. "I want to be with you."

"I feel the same, Elsa," he told her. "But there are times when I might not be around. I don't want you to be lonely without me."

Elsa couldn't imagine Rolito absent in her life. Such a possibility not only confused her. It terrified her. What could steal her Sensei from her?

Stopped in her tracks by that sobering thought, she saw him stop as well.

"Elsa?"

She reached out, took him by the hand and squeezed gently. "Please don't say that, Rolito," Elsa whispered in a tiny voice. "Please don't say you'll leave me. Please don't leave me…"

And then she was in his strong, warm arms.

Just to make sure he was truly there, she sank her face into his chest and breathed his scent. This way, she could hear his heartbeats. They were slower, his blood pressure lower, as if he remembered something that calmed him immensely.

"I won't abandon you, Elsa. I will never abandon you. I'm sorry I frightened you. I was just worried for you. I won't worry you that way again, I promise."

And all was right with her world.

.

After a while, Elsa finally agreed to try and get on Triela's good side. "I don't know about this, Sensei," she admitted, "But I'll try."

"I'm sure you'll be good friends. She's a nice girl."

"How can you say that? She treats her handler badly." In Elsa's opinion, that was a heinous crime.

"Ah, but Triela's a tsundere," Rolito averred.

"A what?"

"Tsundere. It's a person who treats another person coldly because he or she actually likes that other person."

That was the dumbest thing Elsa had ever heard. "Why would they do that to the person they like?" she exclaimed.

"Many reasons, Elsa. The girl –let's say it's a girl," and here Rolito was grinning. "It's usually a girl. Say, she might find it difficult show that she likes a boy. She might not know how to show her affection. She might not want people to know that she likes him, but at the same time she wants to show that they are close."

Elsa's pretty brow furrowed as she thought it over. "Then… that means…"

"That's correct," Rolito confirmed.

"That means Triela is in love with **me**?" Elsa exclaimed.

"Exactly!" Only then did Rolito realize his glaring gaffe. "Wait, what was that?"

"That's disgusting!" She wanted to throw up. Or find Triela and beat her up. "I knew there was something wrong with that girl!"

"Just wait a minute, Elsa! You got it wrong! It's not you Triela likes!"

"I do?" Her expression soured even more. "What, do you mean Triela likes **you**, Sensei?

"Ah…"

"I'm really going to kill her," Elsa vowed.

"Elsa!"

.

"So Triela actually likes Hilshire?" the massively relieved Elsa summarized.

"She's a Grade A tsundere," Rolito confirmed. They had both calmed down now and were enjoying themselves at Triela's expense. "She treats him coldly because she wants him to always be apologizing to her."

"And Hilshire?"

"He's kuudere. He's outwardly cool to her, but deep inside, he wants to hug her to his broad chest."

"How is it that you can hug me but Hilshire can't?" Elsa pointed out.

"That's because I'm AWS-9M Awesome and Hilshire isn't," was his lofty answer.

"AWS-9M?"

"As in an eighty ton Assault Mech's worth of awesome."

By now she knew he was pulling her leg. And that led to…

"Sensei, did you deliberately go overboard when you were apologizing to them?"

"You could never take me to court, Elsa," he told her in a butter-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth tone.

Elsa grinned. Her Sensei was awesome, indeed.

.

_To be Continued_


End file.
